What is Stellar (XLM)?
Stellar is an open-source payments network that went live in 2014, co-founded by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim and supported by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation. Lumens (XLM) are its native asset, and the network is built for moving value and issuing tokens such as stablecoins.
- Type
- Layer-1 payments network
- Launched
- 2014
- Consensus
- Stellar Consensus Protocol (federated Byzantine agreement)
- Max supply
- About 50 billion XLM (no new issuance since 2019)
- Swap network
- Stellar
How Stellar works
Stellar uses neither mining nor staking. Validators run the Stellar Consensus Protocol, a federated Byzantine agreement in which nodes rely on sets of peers they trust, and the network reaches consensus in under six seconds. The ledger has a built-in exchange for issued assets and, since February 2024, Soroban smart contracts.
What XLM is used for
XLM pays transaction fees, from 100 stroops (0.00001 XLM) per operation, and covers the minimum balance every account must hold. Payment apps and ramp providers use Stellar to move stablecoins and local currencies across borders.
XLM supply
One hundred billion lumens were created at launch. A 1% yearly inflation added more until validators voted to end it on 28 October 2019, and in November 2019 the foundation burned about 55 billion of its own lumens, leaving roughly 50 billion XLM with no new issuance.
Before you swap XLM
A new Stellar account only exists once it holds 1 XLM (two base reserves of 0.5 XLM), and each trustline or other entry locks another 0.5 XLM. Exchanges usually require a memo on XLM deposits, but the withdrawal field here takes only an address, so withdraw to your own wallet unless the exchange offers a muxed address starting with M. When depositing XLM manually, include the memo shown with the deposit address.